In recent years, advances in technology, as well as ever-evolving tastes in style, have led to substantial changes in the design of automobiles. One of the changes involves the complexity of the electrical systems within automobiles, particularly alternative fuel (or propulsion) vehicles that utilize voltage supplies, such as hybrid and battery electric vehicles. Such alternative fuel vehicles typically use one or more electric motors, often powered by batteries perhaps in combination with another actuator to drive the wheels.
Such vehicles often use two separate voltage sources, such as a battery and a fuel cell, to power the electric motors that drive the wheels. Power electronics (or power electronics systems), such as direct current-to-direct current (DC/DC) converters, are typically used to manage and transfer the power from the two voltage sources. Also, due to the fact that alternative fuel automobiles typically include only direct current (DC) power supplies, direct current-to-alternating current (DC/AC) inverters (or power inverters) are also provided to convert the DC power to alternating current (AC) power, which is generally required by the motors.
The electrical connections made between the various devices (e.g., inverters, converters, batteries, motors, etc.) are typically made using high voltage coaxial cabling that includes a center conductor for the primary current and a surrounding conductive shield (e.g., a wire braid) for electric field suppression. The magnetic field generated by the current flowing through the center conductor can result in substantial current flow through the conductive shield. This current can lead to significant power loss due to the impedance in the shield and the current along the shield generated from double-ended galvanic connections on both ends of the cable.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved vehicular electrical system that reduces such current flow through the shield. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.